In today’s post, we’ll dive deeper into the third pillar driving digital transformation success, according to Microsoft’s new report, “Reimagining Retail in the Digital Age.” This third pillar, titled “Optimize Operations,” focuses on how digitizing nearly all retail functions – from the warehouse to the store floor – can increase an organization’s insights into its customers and business processes by tenfold. And, this can be accomplished in one-tenth the time it used to.

Microsoft provides digital technologies that enable retailers to enhance their operations by channeling the power of data-driven insights to make smarter, faster decisions around merchandising, inventory management, and assortment planning. More than ever, the ability todo so is critical as retailers face shorter product lifecycles, greater competition, growing customer demand and the need to conduct omnichannel fulfillment (i.e. buy online, pick up in store).

The report focuses on the following areas in which Microsoft solutions can help retailers improve and bring greater efficiency to their operations:

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·      Hyper-local inventory assortments: Using Microsoft’s digital technologies, retailers can create a hyper-local inventory mix that delivers the right product, at the right time, to the right location.The result? Improved brand loyalty and increased market share. By placing inventory according to local demand, retailers are less reliant on large, centralized warehouse management facilities.

·      Enhanced merchandising: With actionable insights provided by market trend analysis and customer feedback, Microsoft enables retailers to reduce time to market for new products and services. This also allows companies to create more personalized offers for their customers, as well as improve their collaboration with vendors. Microsoft’s predictive analytics provide the inventory transparency retailers need to anticipate customer and channel demand.

·      Streamlined business processes and a unified commerce platform: Today’s retailers need smart, streamlined supply chains that incorporate data-driven insights. Microsoft’s digital technologies do just that. They provide retailers with real-time inventory visibility and a centralized, cohesive view of their entire operation, which drives better collaboration across the organization. The result is a seamless, connected customer experience across channels and touch points through Microsoft’s common data model, pre-integrated business services, cognitive intelligence, AI and powerful analytics capabilities.

Want to learn more? Download the full report here.

Amicis Solutions is the go-to provider of Microsoft solutions for North American retailers and hospitality brands. Learn how we can help your business transform your operations with Microsoft’s digital technologies by contacting us today.